Human
by Vloop
Summary: When Project Purity succeeds, how will it change the Wasteland? How will it change the lives of our two intrepid heroes? Part two of my story "Altruism". CharonxOC. Rated M for language, graphic scenes, and adult themes. Trigger warnings will be provided.
1. Chapter 1 - Glad

**Charon**

Things were different after that afternoon. Judy never touched Med-X again and I continued feeling like a human again. Judith told me that addiction isn't as easy as just initially getting over the physical need to inject yourself. Your body has to remember _exactly _how to function before the drug entered the picture. There are more symptoms, but ones that linger. She wanted to make sure she didn't suffer from all that out in the wastes. If something went wrong, she wanted to be within arms reach of a clean clinic. I'd do whatever I could to help her get better. If that meant hanging back in a smelly ship, then I'd do just that.

I would shave her head in the beginning because she was too weak to do it. I was always very careful and very exact. Even when Judy's health had gotten better, she liked the idea of not having to shave her head herself. I think I did a better job than her anyways. She would miss spots all the time or not press hard enough. When it did grow out, her hair would curl and it really was quite pretty. A part of me would always regret slicing it. But I knew exactly why she wanted it gone. 'So nobody would fuck with me again'. That was reason she always gave. I truly understood the weight of the phrase now.

Another vault kid, Butch, showed up in the Muddy Rudder. Butch was a little bitch. We only talked to him once and he was so full of himself but had little to show for it. I think he was boasting about how strong he had gotten and Judy laughed in his face. He challenged her to a fist fight and she knocked him out cold. And this was a weakened state she was in. She wasn't burly, fighting form Judith. This was recovering from addiction and not carrying around a 20 pound monster of a weapon every day Judith.

About three months after Butch showed up, the 'Lone Wanderer' sauntered into the bar. Judith and I were enjoying a beer in the corner when he recognized her.

"Whoa! It's you!" He blurted, pointing right at Judy.

She looked confused and a little bewildered. I think she had forgotten about him. "Yeah, it's you too." She heard the dog bark and she nearly jumped up in the air three feet. "Oh! You're the nerd in the Museum!"

"Isaac?! How do you know this broad?"

Formal introductions were exchanged. The four of us had something of a booze fueled night shortly afterward. After a few drinks, Butch seemed to forget all about when Judy knocked him flat on his ass.

He threw his arm around her neck, and quite proudly proclaimed, "This broad here, lemme tell you! She is _somethin' else!_" He laughed and swayed back and forth a few times. "I got knocked flat on my ass by just _two punches! _Isaac, you've known me the longest, who else has done that?"

The nerd shrugged his broad shoulders. "Not me, I can tell you that."

"_Nobody!_"

"Yeah, I'm sure." Judy prodded.

"See?! There she goes again! Crazy bitch!"

A jolt of anger surged from my toes all the way up to my cheeks. I wanted _so bad _to knock this arrogant little snot out cold. Judy grinned and leaned over and whispered into my ear. "He isn't worth it."

I let it go. But I kept my eye on him.

"Isaac is your name? What are you workin' on nowadays?" Judy asked after the second beer.

"I'm working on getting my dad's water purifier up and running. I actually stopped in Rivet City to restock before I meet up with the Brotherhood to begin the assault on the Memorial."

"Wait, are you saying there's gonna be pure water for us soon?"

He smiled a great beaming smile. "That's the plan!"

"No shit," Judy furrowed her brow. "They're not gonna make us pay for it, right?"

"They?"

"The Brotherhood pricks."

He shook his head. "They shouldn't. If they do, I'll have a word with Lyons. I mean, there will be merchants who sell purified water, but I don't think the Brotherhood will have anything to do with that. Independent enterprise."

"So, the _entire river, _completely cured of radiation? The _whole fuckin' thing? _Not a single blip of radiation will be detected in any drop of water?"

He laughed. "Yes! Yes, all of it. Purified. Safe to drink! I'll be thinking of your reaction when I flip the purifier on." He smiled and took another swig of alcohol.

"You don't understand, Isaac! You have purifiers in the Vault. We don't! We have purifiers in a handful of robots that hardly function anymore! I've grown up my _entire life_ seeing water as this dangerous but necessary thing. We need a lot of it to live, but too much without the proper treatment will literally kill us. To me, that river is poison that I need to drink to live."

"I understand. I've had plenty of bouts of radiation poisoning. Hell, when I first met you, I was a little over the limit and didn't even realize it."

"You guys are just dirty all the time. If you bathed regularly, you'd be fine!" Babbled Butch the Bitch.

"Keep quiet Butch, you're drunk and you don't know what you're talking about." Snapped Isaac.

"You guys are taking things too seriously! You gotta drink more." He bought everyone another round and none of us complained.

The conversations just kept getting louder and weirder. The question was finally asked of Judy why she kept her hair shaved, 'So no one will fuck with me again', and Butch asked if she was bald somewhere else. She rolled her eyes.

"Are you _asking _to get your ass whooped again?"

"I ain't sayin' _nothin'! _I simply _ass-ked _a question."

"Lay. Off." I snarled.

"Oooh, so big scary ghoul man _finally _contributes to the conversation, defending his honey. How chivalrous."

Through clenched teeth, I turned to Judith and asked, "Judy, what does that mean?"

"Chivalry? All that matters is that you have more of it than this snake here."

"Yeah! Tunnel Snakes! Those years were crazy, man." Isaac tried switching the subject.

"Judy? W-What a cute nickname, familiar of Jud-Judith. You guys uh, _familiar, _with each other? Could uh, _we_, get familiar?" He then proceeded to tell her exactly how they'd get familiar with each other. Judy was using every ounce of strength not to cry, or beat him to a pulp, _something_. Isaac tried making him stop, but Butch was intent on telling Judith just exactly how he would fuck her.

But _I_ couldn't take it anymore. Judith deserved more respect than this. I stood up, grabbed the brat's collar and threw him against the wall. He crumpled to the ground in a curled up ball. The dog started barking like mad. I stood over Butch and glared. I never said anything, but I saw the fear in his eyes. The bouncer in me wanted to slam this guys head against the wall and toss him out myself. But the bouncer of this bar threw all of us out equally. It was the first time I've had a bar door slammed behind _me. _It was a novel feeling. Judith was laughing, her arm looped through mine, starting for the stairs.

"I'll catch you later, Isaac! Without that little bastard next time!" She kept laughing, her steps swaying a little bit. "The situations we get in, huh?" She giggled and chuckled the way back up to the deck. "I'm going to get some air."

I followed her onto the deck. We didn't say anything to the other for a while. She just stared out over the water, occasionally looking up at the sky. "You know, a couple months ago, I would have taken a hit of Med-X and gone to bed to forget about that."

"I shouldn't have said your name."

She shook her head. "That name thing doesn't matter anymore. At least, it doesn't feel like it matters anymore." She looked up at me. "I'm trying to thank you."

"For what?"

"It feels better to not have to rely on morphine to deal with the pain."

I shook my head. "Morphine."

"The medical term for Med-X."

"You're welcome."

We went back to the room and played cards until we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore. At the end of the game she put her cards down and looked up at me.

With eyes half open and a sleepy grin spread across her face, "I'm glad you're with me, Charon."

I grinned, "Yeah, you'd better be." She laughed. We got ready for bed and slept.

***Thank you for reading!***


	2. Chapter 2 - Dream

"Judy, I'm telling you, this way will take us to just outside the city limits!"

"That isn't right at all! Look, we're _right here._" I pointed to an intersection on the metro map. "We need to take this west then south, then we'll be outta here!"

"No, that tunnel has collapsed. I know it is. Your way is going to force us up near Arlington. This is the only way out."

"You've lost your marbles. My way is faster."

"You're full of shit."

"You wanna fight?"

"Maybe I do! Winner takes the route they think is best."

We unloaded our packs and weapons before squaring up. Arms out, crouched down low, we circled each other in the dim cavern. The only light from a fire going in a trashcan. He jerked and I flinched. He chuckled, barring black teeth, before I tackled him low. He fell flat on his back grunting as he hit the ground. I tried pinning him down but he was able to get a hold on me and toss me off. He pounced on me, wrapping his arms around me and squeezing me tight. He just ended up squeezing all the air out of me, allowing me to wriggle out from under him to pin his arms behind his back with my arms. He tried getting up, but each time he moved I just pulled harder on his arms. He grunted, then groaned, and admitted defeat.

"How the fuck did you get out of my arms?" He asked as I released him.

"Mmmm, not telling you! We're headed my way!"

He stretched out his arms. "Yeah, yeah, lead the way."

"I told you!" Charon loaded his shotgun behind a wall. "I fuckin' told you this was the wrong way!"

"Now is not the time!" I cried out in pain as a bullet passed through my shoulder. Charon dealt the _coup de grás _to the guy laying fire on me. There was one little fucker that ran off and hid behind a wall. I followed him and bashed his head in with the butt of my gun. Charon killed two more raiders, the last of which fled into a graveyard. We shot them down and left their bodies amongst the dead.

Charon turned to me, furious, "If you had just _listened _to me, we would have been three miles out of DC by now!"

"Whatever!" I snapped, stabbing my arm with a stimpack. "What the fuck ever Charon, all that matters is-" two bullets whizzed over our heads. We dropped behind gravestones for cover. "Oh, for _fuck's_ sake!" We got ready for another fight. I took out my scoped magnum and hid behind the stone, scoping out who was shooting at us. Three raiders, one with an assault rifle and the other two with sledgehammers. I blasted one of the sledgehammer wielding bastards right between the eyes, Charon gunning down the one with the assault rifle. I kicked Charon out of the way when the last raider swung and obliterated the headstone Charon and I were hiding behind. He swung and _barely _missed my leg, I however, was a better shot. I closed my eyes and let my head hit the ground, groaning in exasperation. "Motherfucking raiders." I opened my eyes and looked behind me. I gasped. "Check it out!"

"What is it?" Charon snapped, still peeved, gripping his gun.

I flipped onto my stomach and crawled three feet closer. "Charon, calm your tits and _look at this."_

"What could you of- whoa."

"Yeah," I smiled big and wide, reaching out and touching the petals of the second real life flower I have ever seen in my life. "They're _so soft, _oh my God, I've never felt something so delicate." I mused. My heart started pounding. "I didn't even see any flowers up in Oasis."

He shook his head, "I don't remember seeing any either. Judith, this place isn't safe. We should get moving."

"Calm down, let's just enjoy this for now, okay? I'm sorry that I picked the wrong route, but things are quiet now, so lets appreciate it." He begrudgingly lied down next to me, staring up at the sky. I continued staring at the delicate purple flower at the end of the slender green stem. I turned my head to his. "How many flowers have you seen in your life?"

He shrugged. "I've seen a few. You?"

"I've only ever seen one other flower, it was really tiny and white and purple. What were the ones you saw like?"

"One was red and had a bunch of petals, I think it was called a rose. Another was yellow, Hannah called it a daffodil. The last one was white, and nobody told me what it was called."

"How did they smell?"

He was silent for a moment, eyes half open. He turned his head and looked at me. "I didn't smell them. I didn't care at the time."

"Was Hannah an old employer?"

"Tenpenny's wife." He started calming down. He was on his back, staring up at the sky.

"Oh, gotcha."

"She was always talking at me."

"Yeah?"

"I think she wanted to sleep with me."

I laughed.

"What's so funny?" He furrowed his brow.

"The way you said it, it was just funny!"

"Oh, alright."

I looked at the blossom again, smelling it. It unfortunately didn't smell like much, but I kept breathing in, really trying to remember everything about it. "Charon, when do you think there will be more flowers? Flowers that aren't just on graves?"

"I don't know, but let's secure the area to make sure flowers don't grow on our unmarked graves, yeah?"

I looked at him and he looked at me. It was one of those concerned pained looks like in Rivet City. I nodded and grinned. "Yeah, good idea." I got up and helped him to his feet, smiling feebly, "I'm sorry that I didn't listen to you in the metro before."

He jostled my head around, a thin grin across his lips and in his eyes. "You don't have to apologize to me."

We got moving, going further north. Everything was quiet but we kept kicking all these boxes of food. I kept gathering them, of course, but there came a point where neither of us could carry any more. We found the source, Mama Dolce's headquarters. We stared up at the decimated warehouse.

"You'd think more people would have gathered up all this food by now." I mused. Charon grunted and grabbed my arm, throwing me behind a truck. He dove next to me.

"_We're being watched." _He whispered.

"Let's make 'em stop then!" I got Heavy going and started running towards the door.

"Judy-!" Charon cursed and followed me. Two shots exploded from the building, one nicked my ear and the other made a small crater a foot from me. "Sniper, Judith! Sniper!"

through the front door and into the loading bay. What we fought I would never see in the Wasteland again.

"The fuck are they yelling?" Charon asked, taking cover behind a truck.

I fired the last few rounds through a bastard with a flamethrower. "I have not fuckin' clue." Upon further examination of the bodies, we realized we couldn't read a goddamn thing on their uniforms. They were all ghouls, but they just looked different. Like they were Asian or something. "Could these guys be Chinese? Like in all those posters?"

"Fuck if I know. They probably are."

"So why are they here?" I started stuffing my pack with all the food and Nuka Cola I could fit. They also had plenty of ammo that I could use too.

"You seem to think I have half of the answers you have questions to."

"I'm just thinking _out loud _you grouchy old man. How old are you anyways?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I guess between 70 and 80."

"You guess?"

"I do guess. I don't know when I was born, I was then told that my life in the first place didn't matter, then I stopped aging all together."

"You have a point. But I've never met someone so old before, let alone work with them. Old age isn't exactly a common trait out here."

"No shit."

Another bat shit insane Chinese soldier came screaming down the hall at us with a rusty sword in hand. Charon killed him no problem and we continued fighting and gathering, fighting and gathering, room after room. I was able to open up a terminal, curious to see if that could give us any idea as to why these Chinese guys are here. Apparently, there was a spy inside the ranks of Mama Dolce's Food Processing company. They were supposed to make a move on the capital when the first bombs fell. They were hit, but not hard enough to kill them. And they've been hangin' out here for 200 fuckin' years without killing themselves or leaving. What a bunch of weirdoes.

I was also able to collect more food than we could ever hope of consuming. I made a mental note to return here if we were ever low on food. I made sure to pick up every can of Pork and Beans and Instant Mash. Charon was partial to the Instant Mash. We found the guy who was scoping us out before and promptly killed him off. Charon took up his sniper rifle and looked through the scope. "He had us right there." He handed the gun to me.

I looked through the scope, it was pointed near the entrance. "Creepy." I handed it back to him. "Is there anything on the other side?" I pointed out the opposite window.

He set himself up and looked through the scope. "Oh yeah." He started picking off soldiers one by one. I looked at him and imagined an old guy with grey hair and wrinkly skin in combat armor doing the same exact thing. It was strange to imagine myself constantly with such a person. It'd be pretty fuckin' weird if I was running around with an old man. The endless barrage of dick and cunt jokes would be so much weirder. The thought was lost when he stood up and leaned the rifle up against the wall.

"Ready?" I asked.

"When you are." He stretched his arms above his head.

There was a shot that shot through the window and Charon went down hard. He fell like dead weight, whacking his head on the opposite window sill before falling in a heap. My heart dropped. I dropped to his side. "Shit!" Another shot pinged against the metal window and bounced off my head. I shook Charon but he didn't respond. "Charon!" There was a hole in his side. I stabbed the wound with stimpacks all around the opening, pouring the liquid right into the wound itself. Another bullet broke through the thin metal wall but was stopped by the heel of my boot. "FUCKIN-" I sat up and pulled my magnum and just unloaded at will out the window. I dropped down again to check on his condition. "Charon, Charon!" His eye slowly blinked open.

"What-"

"How's your head?" He winced and held his temple. Another shot whizzed above our head. "Sit tight and don't fuckin' move!" I kicked open the door we hadn't gone through and just obliterated anything that moved. Their commanding officer was perched in the head office overlooking our earlier position. I shot him down and immediately ran back to Charon's side. I sat him up against the wall and got his attention. I pointed a finger in front of his face. "Follow my finger." I moved it side to side and his cold blue eyes jittered as they followed. I stabbed his head with a stimpacks to treat the concussion.

I sat back on my heels, collecting myself. "What happened?" He asked, squinting and blinking his eyes.

"Their fuckin' officer was shooting at us from the office window."

"Shit, I didn't even- oh my fucking God my head hurts so much." He complained, still rubbing his temples.

"Still? You must have hit your head really hard. I'm going to do another neurological check. Close your eyes." I put my thumbs over his eyelids. "Try opening your eyes."

"The fuck are you doing?"

"Just do it."

His eyelids twitched against my thumbs. "Okay, follow my finger again." I moved it up and down, left to right, not seeing any twitching or hesitation in his eyes. "Lean forward, do you feel a weight in your forehead?"

He tilted his head. "No, I don't."

"Then you just hit your head very, very hard. It'll go away soon."

We slept there for the night, mostly chatting and eating. Charon just had a box of those Deviled Eggs, _one box, _and he was puking and shitting all night. Poor thing must have been puking up bile by the end of the night. We stayed another night, just so he could recover.

I had a dream the second night. I dreamt Charon and I were having sex. I didn't feel any pleasure from it, but only pain. I woke up screaming, writhing in pain, my body convulsing and contracting tight in on itself. Charon came back inside in the middle of my episode.

He asked me if I was alright. I told him it was sympathy pains. He called me out for lying to him. I told him it was complicated medical stuff. I couldn't look him in the eyes. I could only see how broad his shoulders were and how tall he was compared to me. I didn't want to notice these things in the dark. I didn't sleep that night. I didn't want to dream that again. For me and for him.

***I'm so sorry this has come out so late! I really do appreciate you sticking with me and this story. I needed to work out some kinks in the story, on top of college homework and projects. Updates should be coming regularly (or at least more so). Thank you so much again for reading!***


	3. Chapter 3 - Processing

Judith

"So what would you rather do, only wear women's clothes for the rest of your life or go completely naked for a week?"

"Easy. Be naked. Would you rather only have to kill mole rats for the rest of your life or kill five Deathclaws all at once and you never have to kill again?"

"If I was faced by five Deathclaws, I probably wouldn't live. So I'm gonna have to go with mole rats forever. Would you rather… rather drink out of a metro toilet or eat me out?"

"I'd rather get my face in that unwashed cunt of yours, are you kidding me? There's 200 year old shit fermenting in those things. At least I know where you've been."

"I don't know if I should be flattered or insulted."

"That is up to you. Would you rather be a man for one week or a ghoul for a week?"

"Don't torture me so."

"What's so bad about either of those things?"

"I'd rather be a ghoul."

He contemplated my answer for a moment. "Really?"

"Yeah man."

"Why?"

I shimmied down a cliff face carefully. "I'd still be a woman as a ghoul, right?"

"Well, sure."

"I wouldn't know what to do with myself in a man's body, to be honest. At least as a ghoul, I'd still be in a body I understood more than an entirely different one." He grasped onto my hand as he jumped down. "Oh! I know a one you'd love. Would you rather eat a hundred Deviled Eggs or one Human Kabob?" We kept walking.

He shoved my shoulder playfully, "I hate you."

"Answer! You gotta!"

"Augh, Deviled Eggs. But I'd be puking on you the entire fuckin' time."

I bust out laughing. "I still can't get over how sick those eggs made you!"

Charon growled and asked, "Would you rather suck my dick or stab yourself in the stomach with a rusty knife?"

"I'd rather _stab_ myself then twist the knife through my innards before your dick enters my mouth. Would you rather-"

"We're playing a different game."

"Sore loser."

"I'm thinking of a thing and if you don't guess right in 20 questions I get to smack you across the face."

"That's hardly fair."

"You pussing out on me?"

"Alright, is it a person?"

"Yes."

"Do I know them?"

"Yes."

"Are they with us right now?"

"Yes."

"You?"

"No."

"Me!"

"Yes."

He smacked me across the face. "Charon! What the fuck?! I got it!"

"20 questions, no more no less."

"You tricky motherfucker. Fuck, you really didn't hold back!" I smacked him just as hard back.

"Ack! Physical violence on your part invalidates our- shit." Charon yanked us behind an overturned truck.

"Invalidates our shit? I was-" He clasped his hand over my mouth and put a finger to his lips. He mouthed 'slavers' as he removed his hand from my mouth. I clenched my teeth as my heart started pounding harder in my chest.

"How many?" I whisper.

He outstretched five fingers.

I could start to hear them approach us. Their light banter about getting paid and getting drunk and getting laid became clearer and clearer. There was one voice above them all that made me go blind with rage.

Charon

Judy just jumped up and opened fire on the slavers with no cue. I had to follow suit. Judith did a side walk to fill as many of the slavers with lead as she possibly could. She also decimated what was left of the crumbling support beams. I had to dodge a collapsing two hundred pound piece of wood. Judy killed them all before I could even really do any damage. She screamed bloody murder and whipped out her magnum. She kept screaming angry sounding gibberish as she blasted the body open over and over again. When she was out of bullets, she found a baseball bat and brutalized the body, grunting and screaming and crying.

He had to of been her old slave owner.

He was after my time there. I didn't recognize him. While she was doing, _that_, I put a round through the head of the other four. I picked over their bodies, thankfully they were all carrying ammo we could use and plenty of food. I looked up at her. "Judy-"

"What?!" She snapped, tears streaking her face. Sweat beaded her twisted brow. His blood spattered onto her clothes. I squared my shoulders and straightened my face, my eyes narrowed. She started relaxing her face. She rubbed her forehead and ran her hand over her scalp, then rubbing her neck. She pinched the bridge of her nose before wiping her nose. "I'm sorry. I'm better." She looked down at the body again. "It's strange to think this is how it ended. I never thought we'd run into each other this way. It was either going to be me going back in to kill him or he would hire someone to find me, like Mei."

"What now."

She kicked what remained. His face was blown open, an eyeball was sitting a foot away from the face. His nose and top lip were blown away, his tongue lolling out to one side. There were about 15 bullet wounds in his body, dark red blood pooled around him. His ribs were bashed in. "I patch myself up and we leave their bodies to rot in the sun." She spat at the body and took out a couple stimpacks. We continued heading west. We were walking for another hour before she couldn't help but start talking again. "Charon, I'm still processing what just happened.

"I just killed the father of my child. I killed him in five seconds. Do you know how many times I've killed him in my head? More times than I'd like to admit. None of those fantasies were five seconds long. I'd imagine talking to him before killing him. The only sound that came out of his mouth was a pitiful little grunt. He didn't even know it was me. I always made it a point in my head that he knew it was me who killed him." She kicked over a rock in her way. "Strangulation, evisceration, torture before decapitation, even crucifixion, all slow painful deaths. But the reality was a handful of rounds and a few brief seconds." She paused and looked around in all directions, "I don't even think I'm awake right now." She looked at me. "Am I dreaming?"

I shook my head.

"So he's really dead? I blew his face open? That's real?"

I nodded my head and grunted.

She looked away again. "I need to lie down."

"Probably."

She chuckled before pointing up ahead. "There's a building up ahead we can stay the night in."

I saw the one she was pointing at. It gave me a very unsettling feeling. I couldn't exactly say why. I didn't mention it to her. She needed to rest. I just got more and more uneasy as we got closer. Judith seemed fine. We entered through the doors and I knew something strange was going on in the building. We started clearing out the ghouls, which seemed to never stop coming. So many feral ghouls, even a handful of glowing ones.

"What do you think? Should we clear out the rest of the building to make sure nothing eats us in the night?"

"I think we should move on."

"Like, entirely? Or move on more into the building?"

"Entirely."

"How come?"

"This place is not safe."

"Charon, no place is safe."

"I mean, there's something strange with this building."

"Like what? Looks like every other dilapidated building to me."

I made a 'tsk' before turning my head. "I can't put my finger on it."

"I vote we clear out the rest of the building just to make sure nothing else will come through and bite us in the ass."

I followed her lead. We walked deeper into the building. We crossed into a giant room with the ceiling caved in. A glowing one was ambling around when Judith stopped in her tracks. She called out to it like a person. She actually started running towards it before I shot it down.

"What are you doing?" She demanded of me.

I squinted my eyes and kicked the body. She turned to it and gasped.

"Holy shit!" She took a few steps back. "I could have swore he was-" She squatted down to get a closer look. I made her stand up and get back. "I swear, I thought he wasn't a ghoul."

"Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, I think I am." She looked up at me. "Let's make this fast."

"I couldn't agree more."

But as we continued searching rooms and killing ghouls, Judith found these disturbing holotapes from a guy named Jaime. As she collected more and more, I got more and more uncomfortable. Like a voice was constantly whispering in my ear. It itched in the back of my head. It became hard to focus sometimes. "Be careful." I warned.

"You always say that." She hopped from one broken slab of broken floor to the next. If she were to fall, she would probably die.

"I don't think you realize just how endangered you are here."

"Eh, probably. But nothing bad has happened so far, right?"

"We should head back."

She stopped and turned to me. "What has gotten into you? What is bothering you so much?"

"I can't explain it. But there is something fucked up going on here."

"Would you rather clear out this building and get the chance to sleep, or camp out in the middle of nowhere where tangible things can rip our bellies open at any moment?"

"Tangible."

"A physical property. A ghoul is a tangible threat. The willies are not. The ramblings of a poor soul slowly turning into a ghoul are sad and unfortunate, but not an immediate threat. Does that make sense?"

I didn't talk back. We entered into the basement of the building. Even more ghouls. There had to be 20 ferals we shot down before the basement. But in the basement was an entirely different story.

We fought through ghoul after ghoul until we reached the recesses of the building. It was a tunnel carved through metal walls, through rock, and opened up into this strange cavern. I told her to stay back while I looked ahead. A glowing obelisk was being worshiped by a non-feral. I think I kicked a stone because his head turned to me. This was bad. I ran to Judith to tell her the situation but it was already too late. A reaver seized me from behind and threw me into the other three. I knocked the 'normal' ghoul's head off with the butt of my gun but the other three were just ripping me to shreds.

One of them occupied Judith while the other two knocked me to the ground. They were actually able to rip off my armor piece by piece and knock my gun out of my hands. They were savage fuckin' animals. They took my skin and flesh out by the hand and mouthful after they got my armor off. I tried fighting back but they ripped up my arms too bad and when I kicked one, it just twisted my foot all the way around. A sickening series of cracks and snaps sent me into so much pain I blacked out.


	4. Chapter 4 - Nice Times

Judith

Every flash of light from Heavy lit up the ugly motherfucker's twisted face. White eyes, jagged missing teeth, radiation and puss seeping from every opening. Reavers had this title for a reason. The last Reaver finally went down after several hundred more rounds. My heart was racing and I was absolutely frantic. The reavers had stripped Charon of his protective armor and went to town on any exposed flesh. His right ankle had swollen to the size of apple and was still growing. His head was bleeding profusely and his femoral artery was ripped into. There were huge pieces of his muscle tissue missing and some of his rib, face, and clavicle were exposed. He wasn't responding. I immediately injected stimpacks into the worst his areas. I had to hold his head wound together so it would heal faster. Stimpacks won't work if there's no blood flow, so his head and thigh were imperative to heal first. Same procedure for his leg as well. Easily three for his ankle, two for his head, five for each arm, and about six for his exposed torso. Blood. There was so much fuckin' blood. The air was thick with the smell of iron.

I waited eagerly for him to breath again. He finally did, his head dropping to one side as he groaned. I dropped my ear to his chest, his heart was slow, but as I was listening his heart got to a somewhat healthier speed. Flesh grew back and bones healed right before my eyes. The skin grew back over the exposed bone, but just as ragged and patchy as before.

I sat back on my heels and tried collecting myself. I couldn't. I was shaking too hard. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on my breathing, but in the silence, I could hear little voices coming from the room behind me. I jumped up and got ready for another fight. There was nothing there. Just the obelisk. The room felt like a cold hell. I felt like screaming. I broke out in a cold sweat and I could feel little fingers running all over my skin. My body jittered and quivered and every hair stood on end. I booked it out of the room, putting Charon's arm around my neck, and dragging us out of the cavern. There was a room with a little bobblehead sitting in the middle of the floor. I decided that was the most secure place. I locked every door and returned to my friend. Jesus Christ, was this how Charon felt when _I _was dying? I took out a cigarette and started blowing smoke. I thought it would help my nerves but it was doing nothing. I've never seen him go down like that. Never. They were just tearing him to pieces. But what mattered was he was starting to come to. I breathed a sigh of relief as he sat up.

He looked me over and said, "You're bleeding."

I shook my head and tensed my brow, lifting my arm into the light to examine it, "I know, I'll fix it soon." I dropped my arms and looked at him. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I just had my leg ripped open."

"How's your ankle?"

"Fuckin' hurts."

"Can you move it?"

He winced in pain a few times, but I'm sure it was still healing. "Mostly."

"Breathing okay?"

"Yeah."

"How about your arms and legs? How do they-"

"Would you calm down?" He snapped.

"No."

"I'm getting better by the minute."

"Don't lie to me. I'm a doctor."

"No, you're some wastelander that remembers everything in those Medical Journals."

"Whatever! I know better than _you _at least."

"Yeah yeah," He moved his arms and legs, and was even able to stand pretty well. It was when he tried walking that things got woozy. I caught him before he hit the ground. I sat him back down.

"Holy shit," I saw his entire vertebral column.

"What?"

I lightly touched his exposed neck bones. "Does it hurt?"

"No, why?"

"I mean, always hurt?"

He paused. "Not anymore."

This was the first time I got to see his top half exposed. He normally keeps himself very well covered. Patches of skin modestly covered parts of his torso, but only parts. Everywhere else I could see his muscles quite clearly. Ripped and torn blood vessels started growing back right before my eyes. Muscle fibers reached out for each other and melded once ends met. It was beautiful, really. But when patches of skin tried growing over nuclear burned flesh, it withered and died, falling off instantly. Its moments like this that remind me that he wasn't always like this. I tried seeing him with a full body of skin. I wondered what his face was like before it became so damaged. My mind wandered to the idea of him having freckles or moles. I snapped back. "How are you feeling?"

"When are you going to stop asking that?"

"Don't snap at me. I'm making sure you'll be able to walk again."

"I can move my foot better. The gash in my leg has fused. And my arms don't feel like there are holes in them anymore."

"That's an improvement. Don't you have a shirt somewhere?"

"Yeah, hold on a sec." He nodded to me as he clothed himself. "You're still hurt."

"No shit. Let me fix myself." My arms up to my elbows were just drenched in half dried blood. I cleaned it off before I treated the affected areas. Out of nowhere, Charon blurted-

"I want out of this room."

"Can you move?"

He stood up and stretched his legs some. He could walk, albeit slowly. We walked to the first floor, but we discovered in the rubble a door to the roof. We seized the opportunity and made camp on the roof of the building. When I saw Charon standing tall against the night sky was when I crashed from the adrenaline rush. I lied flat on my back, cold metal making my skin shiver and raise, I closed my eyes and took deep breaths. "Fuckin hell Charon."

"What?"

"You scared the living shit out of me. I haven't felt this scared since I escaped with Nora."

Charon didn't say anything for a while. He just sort of stared out over the landscape. The lights of Tenpenny Tower flickered in the distance. "I didn't think they'd overwhelm me like that."

"You don't have to justify what happened." I sat up and looked at him. He didn't turn around. "Don't feel guilty or anything."

"I'm not."

"Good." I paused and looked at my outstretched legs. "Y'know, this whole close friend thing really isn't so bad. It's like, when things are bad, they're really bad." I sat back on my hands and rested my head on my shoulder. "But the rest of it outweighs the bad, yeah? It's like the nice times are nicer and the time in between isn't meaningless."

Charon turned around suddenly and looked right at me, his arms uncrossed. He looked so surprised. But once the shock melted away, he repeated. "The nice times are nicer and the time in between isn't meaningless."

"Yeah, is it true for you?"

He grunted and got back from the edge. We didn't really say too much to each other for the rest of the night. The wind was strong and cold that night. We slept close together to keep the other warm.

* * *

**Thanks again for reading! Two updates in a row, woo!**


	5. Chapter 5 - Firsts

Charon

Judy was up before me, getting our breakfast together. She looked over at me and before she could say it, I said "I'm feeling normal again."

She laughed. "Good to hear! Let's figure out what we're going to do today."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean look over the ledge."

I looked at her suspiciously before getting up and walking to the edge. A Deathclaw was pacing the parking lot, occasionally sniffing the air in our direction. I jumped back. "Holy shit."

"Good morning!" She laughed again.

"_Why_ are you _laughing_?"

"Because it's so funny!"

"You have one twisted sense of humor."

"Just think though! We're running low on supplies, I basically have no ammo left, you don't have armor, and we're trapped on a roof with a Deathclaw between us and freedom! The only way it could be worse is if Deathclaws were smart enough to climb!"

"So are we gonna wait him out then?"

She shrugged. "Unless if you have a better idea."

I looked down at the bastard again. "And you don't have any grenades?"

"Nope!"

I grumbled and sat down.

"So what do you think that obelisk was?"

"Bad news."

"Well, duh, but how did it summon all those reavers?"

"Fuck if I know."

"I wonder what it was doing here. And you don't feel uneasy anymore?"

"Not really."

"That's so strange, because I never felt a thing until I was facing the obelisk itself. _That _was really disturbing. I think something was trying to talk to me or touch me or something."

"Something was in my head by the time we got to the floorless room."

"Did it say anything?"

"Nothing I understood."

She lied out flat and look up at the sky with her arms outstretched and one leg bent upward. "We live in crazy world, Charon. Have you ever wondered what life was like before nuclear fallout?"

"No. But I'm suspecting you're about to tell me your thoughts about it."

"Shut up ya cranky old man. If you just want to sit up on this roof all day in silence, I can do that for you."

"If you're offering-"

"Some things never change with you!"

"What?"

"Remember?" She scrunched her eyebrows and said in what sounded like an imitation of my voice, "'I can get along with you better over here. Away from-" She started coughing and laughing at the same time. I laughed with her. "Oh!" She grasped her throat and coughed more and more, "I'm dying!" She took a huge wheeze in before coughing more. "Ug! I laughed at myself and then I started choking on my own spit!"

I couldn't stop laughing at her. It was pretty fuckin' funny to see her rolling around, gasping for air between deep hearty laughs.

"So, yeah!" She finally caught her breath. "You want me to shut up?"

"Not anymore. If you keep this up, I could listen to you talk all day."

"Shut up! Surely you can laugh at more than me _choking on my own spit_."

"Mmm, nah. Watching others get hurt is funny."

"So how about, _this!" _She lurched forward and slapped either side of my head, sending my vision spinning wildly and my ears erupt into a wicked loud high pitch tone.

"Augh, Judy!" She was laughing hysterically. "I'm gonna beat ya' ass when I can see straight again!"

"Is that a threat?"

I lunged forward and pinned her to the ground. She easily tossed me off. The next thing I knew I was face down in the dirty roof with my arms twisted behind my back. Judith's knee was pressed against the back of my neck. My vision was still spinning really bad. My face was being buried into the metal. "Okay, okay! You win."

She instantly let me go as my vision started calming down again. I was catching my breath back up on my knees when I surprise attacked her and the grappling matches really began. She wasn't so bad, really strong. But _she _never had formal hand to hand combat training before. I won a little over half the tussles. But when she got me she got me with the strangest fuckin' moves. Like one time, I had both my arms wrapped around her middle using my body weight to also pin her to the floor, when out of nowhere her legs just basically lifted us both up and she flopped down on her back in one graceful motion. She'd get her arms free then drive her bony little knees into the middle of my arm and then press her forearm into my neck. These continued for a while, it was really fun to fight her.

We took a break after I dislocated her shoulder on accident.

"No, too much pressure. You're not _slamming _my joint back into place you fuckin' numbskull!"

"I'm gonna need you to cooperate with me. You're gonna need to-"

"Yeah yeah, I get it. At least I _knew what I was doing. _Okay, so _gently _rotate my arm, okay now stop. This next part should be done _carefully. _Grab my arm here and _slowly push upward_. Good, see how you can't see my bone sticking out anymore? That's because it's back in the socket. Rotate my arm back near my body." She opened and closed her hand a few times before moving her arm around. It clicked _very _loudly at the same point in the rotation. But after a few minutes of working it, the clicking stopped. "Thank you Charon. Now look at that, you just relocated your first shoulder!"

"How come you're so certain that's the first time for me?"

"Because you tried slamming my humerus into my scapula like it was your dick into some poor broad. That's why!"

"'Poor broad'? Is this some sort of pity fuck or somethin'?"

"No, your manhood isn't what she imagined it to be."

He made a 'tsk' noise before asking, "Why are you always making so many jabs at my manhood?"

"You _sensitive _about that topic?"

"It's weird that you're always talking about it…"

"No. Nope. No way. That would _never _work out. And I don't _always _talk about it. It's an easy thing to tease you about."

"Jeeze, the first no was enough."

"Sorry, it's just-" She rubbed her head. "Complicated medical stuff."

"You have a pair of balls?"

"No, dickwad. More, personal than that."

"You don't have to get so defensive."

"I just don't think it's important."

"You brought it up."

"Ugh, Charon. When are you gonna stop noticing little things like this? Do you want to hear the short version of things?"

"Up to you."

She took a deep breath in and leaned up against an air vent. "Before we start the story, is our friend still down there?"

I got up and checked. "Yeah. Still staring too."

"Well, fine. When things were removed, it wasn't done properly. Also, the trauma Pronto did to me doesn't help either. So now whenever I try having sex, my muscles clamp up and it's a very severe pain."

"Hm, that blows."

She shrugged. "Whatever."

"Whatever?"

"Yeah, whatever. I have lived all of my life without good sex and I don't think I'm missing out."

"You are, though."

"No, I'm not. But I've learned the friendships are all I really need. I'm happy without having experienced good sex."

"But it feels really good."

"Look, you associate it with good feelings and I associate it with severe pain. Like, it feels like I'm going into labor again."

"I've heard that is very painful."

"Uh, _no shit. _It's like-."

"I don't want to hear it."

She shrugged and smirked. "You brought it up."

I shoved her over with my foot and she laughed. We spent the next couple hours playing cards and checking on the Deathclaw in the parking lot. When cards got repetitive and boring we took to lying on our stomachs and watching the Deathclaw from above.

"How hungry do you think it is? It's been pacing all day." She asked.

"Pretty hungry."

"I'm going to throw it some Cram."

"Are you fuckin' insane?"

"Mmm, probably."

"Don't do it Judith."

"What if it really just wants any kind of food? It's pretty small. Could it be a baby?"

"I don't care, it's going to kill us if we leave. And we also need that."

"But we'd be okay if we fed it. All it is is hungry, right?"

"A little bit of Cram is _not _going to fill that thing."

"What if we gave it everything we have?"

I starred at her, _really _trying to understand if she meant that seriously or not. "Judith, I'm going to ask you a serious question. How have you survived in the Wasteland for 25 years?"

"I've shot at things that have shot at me and helped the things that haven't."

"But this is an _animal! _An animal that is trying _to kill us. _Do you bribe every Deathclaw with food so it'll go away?"

"Well honestly, I haven't met a Deathclaw tame enough to offer it any food. But that doesn't mean it hasn't been done before."

I shook my head. "Throwing our supplies is out of the question."

"So what's _in _the question?"

"Waiting."

"But I don't like that."

"Get used to it."

She groaned and rolled onto her back. "Ask me a question."

"Where did you find Heavy?"

"I found it. Somebody else was working on it in a garage out west before he was ripped apart by raiders. At least, that's what I guess. I finished the job and it has been mine ever since."

"Why Heavy though?"

"Because have you _picked up _that thing recently? Thing weighs a fucking ton! It's heavier than a normal minigun by easily 10 pounds."

"But why have you bothered naming it?"

"Well, there was a three month time where I was alone for long periods of time. To sort of keep myself from going crazy, I started talking to the gun. I just kept referring it as heavy and I guess it stuck because I couldn't stop."

"So you were a basket case before I met you."

She laughed and I chuckled. Her teeth were a little crooked, a few even chipped. But it was a nice smile, and an even nicer laugh. Laughter like this was good in Judith. It wasn't the nervous laughter that sometimes bubbles up when we're fighting. That's to cope with the thought a bullet could end her life at any second. Laughing to get over the fear. We lied there watching the sun set over the mountains, the sky turning all shades of red, orange, and yellow as it set. I never really cared for sunsets. They were a sign of the end of the day which meant it would get dark. Darkness isn't safe. Really, sunsets were a bad sign. But right now, it was good. Judith looked up at me and smiled.

"Isn't it beautiful?"

The nice times are nicer, and the time in between isn't meaningless.


	6. Chapter 6 - In Motion

**Judith**

By the next morning, the Deathclaw lost interest and moved on. Charon and I jumped on the opportunity by booking it out of that cursed building. It was great to run again. I ran a little longer than I needed, the wind howling in my ears. I could feel my blood pump through my legs and arms as I sprinted. I started smiling, I felt so alive! I was hungry and stiff, but I was alive! Charon ran behind me and eventually caught up. We jumped over rocks and swerved in and out of dead trees, the only living things in a landscape of burnt death.

Charon suddenly stopped us. "Judith, I remember this road. Talon Company base is just up ahead."

"What should we do?" I was still catching my breath.

"A small platoon patrols this way around this time. If we can get the jump on them, that would help us a lot."

"Alright, then let's wait."

And true to his word, a group of three approached us. I had my knife and not much more. Charon had more ammo for his shotgun, but he'd have to be very careful with it. We looked at each other. I waited for his signal. He nodded and I nodded back and we made the jump on the guys.

I mainly acted as distraction while Charon blew a head off. I got a guy right in the gut when I felt a sharp pain come down on my back. I was blown to the ground when another pulverizing blow landed on my arm. The bones _shattered _in my arm. The guy went down after another shotgun blast, but I was in serious pain.

"Fuck!" I held my searing arm close to my body. The bastard broke my bone clean in two. "Three stimpacks!"

Charon fished out the necessary aid and stuck two into my arm for me. As the bone was fusing together again Charon injected one into my spine. I pretty quickly healed and we began looting the body. The bastard that almost smashed my skull open was wielding a sledgehammer, which was about the only useful thing I took off the bodies. They had plenty of food an ammo for Charon to use. The last body had a dose of Med-X on him. I stared at it.

I could handle it. Just one hit. One hit wouldn't get me addicted again, right? Charon pulled me back into reality by putting his hand on my shoulder and yanked me up on my feet.

He shook his head no. I nodded, thanking him. "Let's get you armored, yeah?" I said nervously. We used the armor the talon mercs had on them, scraped off the white spray paint, and Charon was instantly ready for battle again.

Before we got going, Charon said to me. "If it gets hard again, you have to let me know."

"I know."

"Judy-"

"I know." I turned and smiled for him. "Let's head out, yeah?"

He half grinned and jostled my head around and we headed on up the road. It really wasn't that long until we reached Little Lamplight. I stood at the mouth of the tunnel suddenly feeling everything again. I remembered how I felt with Nora, standing at this very place. I remember the shack and the lights they had strung in the tunnels. I remembered finally feeling at peace that I made it this far. That nothing else mattered. Even if I died immediately after that day, I would die knowing my baby was safe. That all came rushing back. I rubbed my head and took a deep breath. "This is it." My heart started pounding.

"We can leave still."

"No, I can't."

"Then let's go."

I took another deep breath in and entered the tunnel. Every footfall echoed against the walls. I initially wanted to stop and collect myself when I reached the door, but I fought that urge and stepped through. The gate was taller than when I first came here. The guard stopped us.

"Hold it right there, mungo! Just turn around and leave right now before I put one right between your fuckin' eyes."

"You can lick my butt. I want in."

"Oh yeah? How come?"

"I'm Nora's mother."

The kid took aim, "How the fuck do you know her name?"

"Because I'm her _mother _idiot. I just said that."

"I don't fuckin believe you! How old is she then?"

"She'd be seven by now."

"I still don't trust you! How do I know you're not a slaver?"

I nodded at him and furrowed my eyebrows. "How do you know about slavers?"

"I didn't grow up in these godforsaken caves, fucktard. But three of our men haven't returned and it's been a week."

"If I get them back, will you let me in?"

He lowered his gun. "I still don't trust you, but we have a deal."

I turned on my heels and ran out the tunnel and straight for Paradise Falls. We didn't stop for miles. Charon didn't like it. He always likes to take little breaks to survey the area. I didn't have time for that. I only thought of the three kids in the pens with those wretched collars around their necks, digging into their skin, scaring them. We arrived by night fall. I was exhausted, but I didn't really fuckin' care. We came up to the entrance with two guards dozing off. We took out our knives, agreed on our targets, and went in for the kill. We dispatched them quickly and quietly. "What is the plan of action now?" Charon asked.

"We go in and avoid the floodlights. They're everywhere, on the watch tower, Eulogy's balcony, the Box, and the pe-"

"What are those."

I looked at him cock eyed, "What do you mean, 'what are those'?"

"Who is Eulogy and why does he have a Box?"

"Holy shit, how long ago did you work here?"

"A long time I guess."

I described the new layout of the place before we formulated a plan. We'd have to keep close to the wall and just avoid the lights at all cost. Everyone would be asleep, except for the watchmen. There'd be at least one person looking after the slave pens. He'd have to be dealt with. I'd deactivate the collars then we'd all sneak out together. If not, they forge ahead while Charon and I killed anyone coming after us. We agreed on the batshit crazy plan and snuck into the gate.

A whole flood of feelings and memories washed over me. This was the place of my nightmares. This was where I wasted away for two years of my life. The shop was just around the corner. I was locked in that basement for the worst year and a half of my life. This was just a place of pain and panic. I could feel my hands start to shake and my breath rise into my throat. Charon stopped me. He mouthed. "Calm down."

I nodded. I separated myself from the towering Big Boy statue, staring at me with peeling black eyes. I avoid the blinding light. I wipe my brow and take deep breaths. I spot a slaver slumped over the bar. He's dead asleep, but neither one of us takes the chance. Charon very deftly and quietly covers the slavers mouth and slices open his throat, putting the body back in its original position. There is a key hanging out of his pocket, Charon takes it. We carry on.

I stop myself from quivering before Eulogy's mansion. I see the slave pens. I want to hasten but there's another guard, much more aware of his surroundings looking over the slave pen. I let Charon handle this one. My partner and I hug the wall closely and when the guard turns his head, it is the last time he does so. A child is in sight. I catch her attention, but motion for her to keep quiet. I beckon her to my side. "Hey there little one, my name is Judith and we're getting you out of here."

"I'll go get Squirrel and Sammy. My name is Penny."

She got up and ran into one of the huts. Three children emerged shortly there after. "My name is Squirrel and you're going to do exactly what I say to get out of here."

"No, little man, we're going to work together to get out. I escaped not that long ago and I know my way around the complex."

"Fine, what do you know?"

"I know how to get your collar off, shut down the floodlights, and a key into the pens."

"I know there's a sewer from where we'll escape and that this fence is electrocuted."

"So I shut off the electricity, undo your collars, and switch off the lights. You guys know where to run?"

"'Course we do."

I smiled. "Good. Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

"Wait!" Penny cried. "My friend is in the box!"

I shook my head. "I'm sorry Penny but we can't risk that right now."

"But what if he dies?"

"But what if you die? Or Squirrel or Sammy?"

She paused, "But he's my closest friend, I promised him I'd rescue him."

"Shut up Penny, he's dead already. Nobody can last longer than three days in that box and it's been a week."

I could sense tears coming on. "Penny, Penny, don't cry. We really need you to be quiet right now. We can come back for him."

She nodded, sniffing, choking back tears. "O-okay."

I grinned. "Good girl. Now are we ready?"

"We're counting on you, Mungo."

I left the key with Charon and rushed to the electrical box. I shut down the electricity to the gate. As I was returning, Charon already had the gate unlocked. I furiously defused all their collars one by one, my nervous fingers working as deftly and as carefully as they could. One by one, they were all free. I nodded at Charon to flip the flood lights off. And this is where things got dangerous. The kids ran to the sewer pipe they had spotted and disappeared one by one. I felt so relieved, but then I had to turn my attention back to my own life. Sweat running down my forehead, it would only be a matter of time before the tower sentry came down from his perch to examine what had happened. Charon and I waited in the shadows. We heard his footsteps approach us.

***Thank you so much for the reviews and thanks for reading!***


	7. Chapter 7 - Embrace

My heart nearly stopped when he was right in front of us, swearing at the fuse busting. I leapt forward and sunk my blade into his throat. It only stopped when it hit his bone, sending a dull _thump _up my arm. He made a disgusting gurgling noise as blood filled his lungs, this man died from drowning in his own blood. I stood over the body to make sure he was dead before looting the corpse. He had a lot of ammunition I could use for Heavy, freshly stocked. That was it. We had another couple minutes before people realized the lights were out. But before we left, I looted Pronto's store for supplies.

My legs turned to stone and my heart stopped. Maybe this was a bad idea, but we needed supplies. Charon firmly took my hand out of nowhere and walked with me behind the counter. The door. The basement. The cold. The pain. My screams of agony. His screams of pleasure. And Nora. I was doing this for Nora. I felt like throwing up, but that would take too long. I held down the heave and we both took anything and everything that we needed. Charon took my hand again and we bolted. We were close enough to the entrance that we would escape again before they could even see us.

We found shelter in a little collection of houses. The moment we stepped through the door of one still standing house, I had to step outside to hurl. I just puked up every ounce of bile and acid in my gut. I was shaking hard and I could hardly calm myself. I wiped my nose of dripping mucus and my mouth of sickening acid. I stepped back through the door with Charon waiting for me. His armor was piled on the couch, and he pulled me into a very awkward hug. I stood there, dumbfounded. I didn't hug back I was so shocked. He pulled away from me and asked, "Was that a normal thing to do when something goes good?"

"U-Uh, yeah, sure." I was revolted by my own breath. I gagged and took a swig of water to try and wash out the taste. I spat out on the ground.

"Was that Pronto's place?"

I looked down, "Yeah, it was."

He pulled me into another embrace. I held him back this time. He tucked his elbows in closer to his body, I held him tighter, resting my cheek against his chest. He put his hand on the back of my head. The embrace felt better this time. "Was that the right thing to do?"

I grinned. "Yeah, that was right."

He pulled away first. "Are we staying the night here?"

"Yeah, I'm exhausted. We'll leave first thing in the morning."

We dragged our bodies up the rickety stairs and collapsed onto the bed. We slept soundly that night.

***Twofer, maybe threefer, for not updating in a while. Thank you again for reading! I appreciate it, and I hope you like it!***


	8. Chapter 8 - Nora

We woke to sunlight filtering through the dirty window. We were quick to get ready and left the house within minutes of waking up. The trek back to the caves went quietly, only having to kill the occasional raider pack before reaching the cave. I didn't hesitate. I didn't dwell. I just charged ahead.

"There you are mungo. We thought the slavers got ya. Now listen here-"

"No, _you _listen to _me. _My baby is in there and there is _nothing_ you can say to me that will scare me. You don't scare me. You talk tough and you have that broke-ass gun, but I have a bigger gun and bigger muscles than you. Now you're _going _to treat me with respect or I'm gonna snap your little twiggy neck, got it asshole?"

"J-Just so you know, you don't scare me neither." He stammered. "I'm lifting the gate."

The rickety pulley system raised the door to just high enough that I didn't have to lean over. Charon however, was expecting it to go higher and smacked his forehead square into it. The guard and I laughed at him at the same time. He looked up at me. "MacCready. Whose the stickyface?"

"This is Charon. Don't call him stickyface."

"I'll call him-"

I shot him a glare, "Charon. You'll call him Charon. Now where is Nora?"

"She's probably in the mess hall." He gestured to a sign. "Just follow the signs until you're there."

I turned on my heels and ran with the signs that pointed to their eating area. A little girl of about seven was sitting at a picnic table, happily digging into a can of Pork and Beans. She had on a pair of overalls with a white t-shirt on underneath. Her hair was light brown and curly and frizzy. Her back was towards us. I carefully approached her, Charon stood back in the doorway. I looked at him and he looked back at me and nodded. I nodded back and approached her. "Hi, could I sit here?"

"Whoa! A mungo! How come MacCready let you in?" She had these bright blue eyes. They were exactly like mine. Her lips were mine too, but she had her father's tan skin. She was absolutely beautiful.

"I came here to meet you." I could feel tears welling in my eyes.

"Meet me? How come? Did I do something wrong?"

I laughed. "No, not at all honey."

"How come you don't have hair?"

"One question at a time, little one."

"So did I do something wrong?"

I shook my head. "No, baby, you did nothin' wrong."

"Baby?"

I took a deep breath in, tears blurring my vision. "I'm your mother."

She stopped eating, looking at me. "Really?"

I nodded my head. Tears fell out of my eyes. I wiped them away quickly. "Really. Your name is Nora."

"Why are you crying?" She wiped her face, surprised. "Why am _I _crying?"

I laughed and beckoned her over to my side. She quickly got up, still crying, and fell into my arms. I squeezed her tight against my chest, both of us sobbing into the other. I kissed her head over and over, grasping her gentle little arms. She even still smelled as I remember. She was here, and she didn't hate me! She kept saying 'Mama' over and over again, little streams of tears trickling down her soft cheeks. I couldn't stop squeezing her, keeping her as close to my heart as I could. She still gave me that sense of hope. That sense that everything will be okay. That sense that I need to take care of her with every bone left in my body. She gave me purpose.

I have never been so happy in my entire life.

* * *

**Charon**

They cried together for a good while before the onslaught of questions began. I stood back and watched. I stood there grinning like an idiot the entire time. The two sat cuddled next to the other, Nora huddled in her lap and Judith's arms wrapped around her little girl.

"How come you left me here? The other kids told me you were probably dead!"

"I came from a really bad place that I didn't want you to grow up in. I escaped from that place when you were a tiny little baby and brought you here. I knew this place was very safe and nothing bad would ever happen to you here."

"Where's my Daddy?"

"He's not here anymore. Don't ever worry about Daddy."

"Who's that in the corner then?"

"His name is Charon, he's my _best_ friend."

"Can he be my Daddy?"

Judith exploded in laughter that echoed throughout the cavern. "How about it, Charon?" She sniffed. "You ready to be a Daddy?"

"Mommy, how come you laughed at me?" She was offended.

Judith kissed her daughter again. "I didn't laugh at you baby, I was laughing at Charon. He's a real rough and tough guy who's _too cool _to be a Daddy."

"Oh, okay. So why don't you have any hair?"

"I shave it off because it's very dangerous out there, and hair just gets in the way."

"What is that hugenormous thing you put on the floor?"

"It's a type of gun called a minigun. This one in particular is called Heavy."

"How come you didn't visit me sooner?"

She sighed, "I wasn't ready to, I was in a lot of pain and I didn't want to put any of that pain onto you. I love you so much, you have no clue."

"You're squeezing me! Wow Mama, you're _really _strong."

"Sorry honey. You'll grow up to be just as strong as me one day."

"I sure hope so. So tell me about the bad place. Why was it so bad?"

"People are held there against their will, and forced to do things they don't want to do."

"Did you do something you didn't want to do?"

She nodded. "I did, and I hated it. So that's why I left, so you didn't have to feel the same pain like me."

"Who hurt you?"

She hesitated answering that question. "Your Daddy."

"What did he do?"

"Don't ever worry about Daddy."

"Please tell me. I'm seven years old, I'm not a baby."

Judith grinned. "He and I made you, sort of by accident. Daddy was less thrilled, but you made me so so _so_ happy. So don't ever worry about Daddy."

"Okay, I promise I won't ask about him anymore. I love you Mama."

Judy rested her cheek on top of her head. "I love you too, baby. Oh Nora, you make me _so _happy."

"Why did you name me Nora?"

"It was my mother's name, your grandmother's. Do you like it?"

"Well, the other kids call me by my nickname 'Nopa Ropa'."

"Nopa Ropa? How come?"

"I couldn't say 'r' when I was learning how to talk and I'd say 'Nopa' instead. Ropa because it's more fun to say it that way. What's your name?"

"Judith."

"That's a pretty name, but I like calling you Mama."

Judith squeezed her daughter. "I like it when you call me Mama."

Nora leaned into her mothers ear and whispered something.

"Of course." Judy turned around and called me over. "She wants to meet you."

I walked over to the table they were sitting at, and before I could even sit down Nora blurted. "Holy cow! You're _really _tall!"

I grinned and sat down across from them. By the expression on her face, I counted down the seconds before she asked- "What happened to your face? Are you like that all over?"

"Yeah, I am. My skin peeled off after I got thrown into a lake of radiation."

She jumped at my voice and cowered back into her mother, rubbing her face into her chest. "Charon is scary."

Judith consoled her daughter and gave me a stern glare. "Charon _is _very scary. But he scares bad people away." Nora pulled away from her mother and they looked each other in the eye. "Charon also helped make the pain go away so I could see you again."

The little girl looked back at me. "Well, if he helped you get better, then you can't be _so _bad."

"That's right, but you have to understand, Charon is still a person. He's no less of a person just because he looks this way. Do you understand?"

She nodded. "Is he like a superhero?"

I laughed and Charon chuckled. "Well, he can do some things that I can't."

"Like what?"

I chimed in. "See everything before your mother does."

Judith smiled at me, "That, and he can go into a lot of radiation and not get sick."

"That seems helpful." Nora added. She kept staring at my hand. "Could I feel it?"

I raised an eyebrow and straightened my lips. "My hand?" I shrugged and let her feel my paw. She felt it over and over, running her little fingers over my muscles and tendons.

"Whoa! Your hand is so much bigger than mine!" She exclaimed. We ended up pressing our palms together. I curled my fingers around her hand and she squealed with laughter. "Mama! Show me your hand!" They compared hands, "Now you press your hand against Charon's! I wanna see!" We obliged her request and she giggled with laughter. Judith and I smiled at each other.

We were all happy and that's all that mattered.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! More to come!**


	9. Chapter 9 - Always

**Judith**

The news spread that two 'mungoes' were in the caves, and news traveled fast. Some of the kids were curious to see what all the news was about. I talked to them some, Charon and I shared some stories. We were in the great cavern, Charon shooting some pool while I was up on a table watching. Nora played with Charon, though it was mainly just if she could knock a ball into a pocket.

"So what's the weirdest thing you've ever seen?" A little kid asked.

"Your face!" The little group giggled at the kid. "But really, the strangest thing I've ever seen was most certainly a talking tree."

"No way!"

"Nu-huh!"

"Liar liar _pants on fire_. Trees only exist in books."

"It's true." Charon added. "His name was Bob. Or was it Herbert?"

"Those were the names of the tree. The man's name was Harold. Ya see, not too long ago, this guy fell into a vat of green ooze with some sort of seed stuck in his hair. When he got out, the seed started growing into a tree right there on top of his head. The tree grew more and more until the guy stuck his roots into the ground and sprouted branches and leaves. But he still kept his face, so we were talking to a tree." I pointed amongst them. "_That _is why you take a bath."

"Baths are for mungoes!" A kid proclaimed.

"Baths are for people who don't want to be trees!" I looked back at the pool 'game' that was going on. "Oh! Baby, hit the five ball against the seven."

Nora hit the ball perfectly away from the top right pocket. Charon gave me a look. Nora looked at me eagerly. "Like that?"

I laughed, "Just like that!"

"Do you have a nickname, Judith?"

"Yeah, but its sort of boring."

"Judy." Charon hit a ball into the side left pocket.

"Judy _is _boring. What if we called you Baldy?"

"Sure kid, if you think that's more fun."

"The ghouls in Underworld called you Baldy." Charon interjected again. He fixed Nora's stance by lifting up her elbow.

"What's Underworld?"

"Like the pot calling the kettle black. Underworld is a place in D.C where only ghouls live."

"How come?"

Charon straightened her outstretched arm, but she was just too little to keep a good stance. "Because people discriminate against them. Also, it's safer in numbers."

"Remember guys," Nora broke stance and proudly knocked the end of the pool cue against the floor. "They're no less of people just because they look different."

Charon jostled her head around before taking the next shot. One of the kid's eyes grew wide. "Do that again!"

"Do what?"

"These kids really enamored with you, big guy."

He shot me another look before taking another shot. "That hand thing! On her head!"

He set his massive hand on top of Nora's head and they all oohed and aahed. He scrunched his fingers and made her eyebrows pull upward. They all laughed and asked if he could that for all of them. He was patient enough to oblige them, when out of nowhere one of the little boys got the idea to _bring him down _like some sort of animal or something. They _all _pounced on him, climbing up his legs and leaping onto his arms and around his shoulders. I don't think I laughed harder in my life, like, five fuckin' kids just _hanging _off of him. In between breaths, I asked him, "How does it feel to be the new play thing?" I hollered, clapping, "You look _priceless!"_

"Shut up Baldy."

"Can you move?"

He took a step forward, dragging a little squirt across the floor who was thrown into a fit of giggles. He flexed his arms with the kids still on them. "You know, they're not bad as weights."

I couldn't help but laugh even harder when they started dropping like flies off his arms, only to climb back up. He'd start ripping them off and putting them back on the ground, but their mission to bring him down never ceased. They tried everything but biting him and landing any sort of shot between the legs. The fun came to an abrupt stop when MacCready showed up.

"What's all this fuckin' noise?"

All the kids immediately dropped off Charon. "Nothin'!" One kid answered, not looking directly at one point.

"We were trying to topple Charon!"

"Did ya do it?" Nobody answered. MacCready took off his helmet and put down his gun and rolled up his sleeves. "Watch and learn."

"You ain't doin' shit, kid."

"Watch me!" MacCready jumped up and hung around Charon's neck like a necklace. All the other kids laughed and then joined in again. It took six of them for him to finally buckle. MacCready got up quickly, re-equipped himself and left with a proud little smile on his face. The kids then all jumped on him again.

"Give Charon a break, kids."

He shook his head. "It's okay, Judy."

"Take us all to out bedrooms!" One little kid demanded. The rest started screaming for the same treatment.

"Still okay there, big guy?"

He started plucking them off one by one. His patience had run dry. The game had ended. Nora thanked Charon for letting her climb all over him and returned to my lap. "Can you carry me to bed?" She asked.

"Sure I can. Nora, I'd like to ask you something important. Are you ready to talk about it?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"I'd like to live outside Little Lamplight with you." I stood up and started walking. Charon followed.

"Outside Little Lamplight?" She looked around. "Why?"

"Because I can't live here, and I don't want to be too far from you for too long anymore."

"What do you mean 'too far from you for too long'?"

"Charon and I don't have a lot of money, and to live in a safe place like Rivet City, we need money."

"What are you planning?"

I chuckled. "You're sharp. We're planning on doing a bunch of stuff for other people so we can get enough money to buy us a place to live."

"What's Rivet City like? Is it nice?"

"It's very safe. The safest place to live. It's a little cramped and a little smelly, but they have big, soft, clean beds and there's always food so we won't ever go hungry. They're actually starting to farm the land with the clean water now."

"But I've been here my whole life and all my friends are here."

"There will be little kids at Rivet City too. In fact, there's someone there I know you'd like. His name is Bryan."

"But that's just one kid, I want _all _kids. I don't know if I want to leave Little Lamplight yet." I lied down with my daughter in her bed. Charon broke off, he was going to stand in as night watch for the kids. We wished him goodnight before he left.

"It won't be immediately, it'll take a couple months to save up the money. You have plenty of time to think it over. And baby, if you don't want to live with Charon and I in Rivet City we are both _so _okay with that." I held her a little closer. "We can visit you as often as you want here in Little Lamplight. We won't get to see each other everyday, but I'll still be able to see you and hug you and kiss you when we do."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

We got to the room and I lied down with her on the mattress. "Alright then. But if you feel like you don't want that, just let me know. No matter what, I will _always _come back to you. I will always be here for you."


End file.
